Now Microsoft Wants Its Laptop Back — Microsoft and AMD sent out a pile of very expensive (yet trashy looking) laptops to a number of bloggers over the past week. We were told we could keep them - now after a day of minor outrage by some people they are emailing us back with the following request that we not keep them after all!

The Microsoft "Scandal" — So we received one of the Microsoft computers the other day that everyone's been screaming about. I don't think this is much of a scandal, because Microsoft is being pretty open about exactly what they are doing - giving away computers loaded with Vista to bloggers …

Apple 'falsified' files on Jobs' options — Steve Jobs, chief executive of Apple Computer, was handed 7.5m stock options in 2001 without the required authorisation from the company's board of directors, according to people familiar with the matter. — Records that purported to show …

Full disclosure... I am sitting in an airport in Houston. I see a lot of people are wondering who is paying for the trip. I wasn't supposed to announce what I was doing until I got to New Orleans, but since news schedules have been moved up (John Edwards announced he's running for President today) I'm sure the campaign won't mind.

ProfileLinker Takes Meebo Approach to Social Networking — There are clearly too many social networks, and if you belong to one you likely belong to many. Boston based (soon to be relocated to San Francisco) ProfileLinker's aim is to help you stay organized across those networks.

The Mac OS X font managers review — Introduction — Well it was a long time coming, but I've been through the trenches and come up, sucking chest wound and all, with the Ars review of font management programs. I've also succeeded in not completely losing my mind while the developers updated the apps …

PayPerPost In The News Again — PayPerPost, the controversial startup that pays bloggers to write about advertisers' products, will be in the news again tomorrow. They will be announcing the acquisition of blogging tools and services company Performancing (see our earlier coverage of Performancing).

AACS DRM cracked by BackupHDDVD tool? — Can it be? Is Hollywood's new DRM posterchild AACS (Advanced Access Content System, see more here) actually quite breakable? According to a post on our favoritest of forums (Doom9) by DRM hacker du jour muslix64, his new BackupHDDVD tool decrypts and dismantles AACS on a Windows PC.

Games Make You Drive Like an Idiot — FoxTrot Cuts Back to Weekly Reaffirms Love of WoW — FoxTrot cartoonist and World of Warcraft enthusiast Bill Amend recently announced that he would be cutting back from producing his excellent newspaper strip on a daily basis to a weekly one.

Google to invest in Chinese video Web site — Google Inc., owner of the world's most-used Internet search engine, will invest in Shenzhen Xunlei Network Technology Ltd., a Chinese Web site that helps users download videos from the Internet. — The investment will probably be disclosed next month …

The 20 Most Innovative Products of the Year — Always intriguing, often useful, and sometimes surprising, these 20 products showcase some of the best in tech this year. — A PC that's half desktop, half notebook. An operating system that runs entirely on the Web. A radically made-over office suite.

Earthquake knocks Asia back to phone age, and beyond — BANGKOK: It was a tsunami for the digital age, a collapse of the virtual world that radiated through much of Asia and beyond after an undersea earthquake late Tuesday off the coast of Taiwan. — People woke Wednesday …